We’ve all heard the clichés before. “Be a disruptor in your industry!” “Think outside the box.” But nothing is more prevalent in today’s always-on environment than, “Cut through the noise.”
While that adage remains true now more than ever, it becomes increasingly difficult as more creators and brands battle for attention. This is made more challenging given the financial services industry is highly regulated and doesn’t have the same appeal as entertainment or sports.
And today’s homebuyers include Millennials and Gen Z — two groups that grew up online and value authenticity, clarity and simplicity.
Cutting through the noise requires standout captions, eye-catching graphics and easily digestible video content. That often means meeting your audience where they’re at. Bringing relevance to the mortgage industry today requires making financial educational content both approachable and entertaining.
Building connections
People want to do business with someone they know and trust. Creating videos on social media is often the best way to do that today. Some of our most digital-savvy clients do that by breaking down common mortgage questions with a local perspective only they can provide.
Our Mortgage Matchup brand, for example, connects local home experts with homebuyers and borrowers, many who aren’t aware of the benefits of working with an independent mortgage broker. To share that message, we created recognizable video series — like our “Two Truths and a Lie” and “True or False” — that don’t require extensive editing and use language our audience (first-time homebuyers) understands.
Tapping into cultural moments and trends help make mortgages and mortgage brokers more relatable to the modern homebuyer. When everyone was participating in this summer’s “Holy Airball” trend, UWM’s team jumped in with our own spin. When Taylor Swift announced her engagement, UWM was there, too.
It’s important to capitalize on opportunities like these because trending content is more popular and sparks conversation and participation. Showing your personality builds customer loyalty and recognition. Our own metrics support this — we’ve seen followers increase month over month across our channels.
Whether you’re a team of hundreds or run a mighty office of one, you don’t need to dedicate your time to jumping on every trend. And you don’t need a social media team to create impactful, relatable content. When we find something, we first decide whether it aligns with our brand’s content pillars — topics we want to talk about — before determining whether we act on it.
Once you do identify the right trends to invest in, act quickly! Don’t miss a trending moment because you took too long making it perfect or because you were nervous to jump into the conversation.
Don’t just follow, lead
Jumping on every trend isn’t a sustainable strategy for making your content approachable and engaging. Every creator and every audience are different. Understanding that will allow you to create content authentic to who you are.
In my decades of marketing experience, the one constant I can share is you need to experiment without the fear of failing. Test, learn and test some more. It’s the approach UWM takes with everything. Not everything will take off, but by showing up in your audience’s feeds consistently, you’ll be able to build on that awareness, stay top of mind and find success.
Entertain and educate, then sell
We use social media to catch up with friends, stay up to date on the latest news and be entertained. We don’t want to be sold something all the time.
With that in mind, here are tips we’ve found that help us meet our audience with content they recognize.
- Keep a record of what you like. As you scroll through social media, pay attention to what makes you pause. Think of a way to bring that back to your business. You can bookmark silly sounds, clever captions or funny filters, then reference those for future ideas.
- Encourage participation. Ask questions, respond to comments or run a contest. Increase your discoverability by leveraging social media algorithms that reward those who drive conversations.
- Track your results. Look at what resonated and what didn’t. Make notes of the content type or the length of the caption. Set benchmarks, such as Instagram’s view rate or Facebook’s total impressions. You’ll soon notice what’s gaining traction and what’s not.
Creating approachable, relatable content doesn’t need to feel overwhelming. Start experimenting today and discover the impact it can have on your business.
English (US) · 